Songs or albums to push headphones or speakers to their limit
This was a challenge to summarise in a title, but what I am after is a discussion of songs or albums with sound detail and design with high complexity that is also enjoyable to listen to. Listening to songs that really push the speakers to their limit in terms of detail is a joy, one could argue that all music does this, but from my perspective some recordings really shine through when you listen to them with proper high-quality high fidelity speakers or headphones. Most classical music fall within this genres but there are plenty of other genres which are interesting.
Some examples:
CLARITY - Jacob Collier
Hand Covers Bruise - Trent Razor and Atticus Ross
Dream of Arrakis - Hans Zimmer
Eyjafjallajökull - Nordlight
I hope I managed to make myself understood, if not I will try again! Anyways, what are your favourite complex pieces of music?
Just wanted to add that the source file is big part of this. If you don't have quality source, you won't push anything to the limit. Consider at the very least audio CD quality, I would say. No streaming, MP3s etc. Only Wav of Flac or some other lossless format.
The DAC (digital to analog converter) is another part of this as is amplifier. I'm no audiophile, but these are some variables that has to be considered.
Not saying to go out and spend thousands of $ or € (or equivalent in your currency) but you won't use Spotify + integrated sound card in your PC or audio chip in your phone if you want your good headphones or speakers to sound great.
To be fair, many streaming services now offer a lossless tier. Spotify's premium plan allows for lossy streaming quality at roughly 320 kbps, which is considered acceptable compressed quality for all but the most discerning ears.
As I use my own media library, I didn't know there are lossless streaming services. Thanks for the info.
Deezer is good. Tidal has this weird folding technique that is actually lossy. If you've got good ears, you can hear that deadness like you would with a 320kbps.
Deezer is shit with almost everything else, though. Still worth having around.
I've tried A/B tests of lossless vs 320kbps lossy. I can't tell the difference. It's like 500FPS vs 5000FPS.
An external DAC/amp will definitely be an upgrade over on-board soundcards but you don't necessarily need to buy expensive ones.
At the same time, most people aren't using lossy codecs at that degree of transparency. I listen to everything encoded in Opus at 192 kbps, but YouTube audio is absolute trash. Lossless isn't everything, and most audiophile fetishes are pretty frivolous, but it's worth pointing out for laypeople.
Electronic music has huge potential to push the technical limits of speakers and headphones. I lean into the experimental bass end of things. Here are a few tracks and albums I listen to when I first get a new audio setup:
Flume & Eprom - Spring: Very technical, detailed highs and a variety of types of bass.
G Jones - The Ineffable Truth: Reminds me of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in the way it ebbs and flows through the album.
Deathpact - SPLIT // PERSONALITY PT. 02: Much heavier hitting and more experimental, but still bassy and technical. I especially recommend 0506+056.
Haha, when I'm listening through headphones and the volume's up, I can always feel that bassline in my earlobes. My introduction to James Blake was Retrograde. Such beautifully haunting music.
I was hoping to see Shpongle in there
Gjones was the first artist that came to my mind. The Ineffable Truth is an incredible album where listening with a decent set of speakers makes a huge difference
Yessss G Jones is my single favorite artist. New album next Friday and I get to see his new Paths tour later this month!
I wouldn't say it pushes anything "to its limit" but I always use 'The Basis - Lack of Afro' to try out a new set of cans or audio setup.
The reason I like it so much is because the track has a good spread of lows, mids, and highs all while using different instruments and vocals.
Plus it goddamn jams.
My partner is an audiophile, and his go-to for this is The Taxpayers, especially the intro. According to him their stuff is pretty well-mastered, and even I (with my non-musical ears) heard an impressive and significant difference the first time I heard it through good speakers.
Another one is Tartar Control, pretty much anything of theirs, because it makes absolutely no sense how well-mastered it is, given what it is (which is fun, but like.... it's two guys dressed as Mormons and their robot doing GG Allin-style-ish hardcore, so lol).
that Taxpayer's cut went in a direction I was absolutely not expecting.
I recommend the Alan Parsons Project's The Eye in The Sky, it's a good album but the band said it best with the quip 'some people use their equipment to listen to our music, some people use our music to listen to their equipment.'
That's incredible! Thank you so much for letting me know, I can't wait to see what it does to listen to their albums on equipment tuned to their sound check disk
I'm always down to test a new set of headphones out with some tracks that I always go to, as well as any speakers to be honest.
I'll hopefully pop back and link the tracks, but grab the FLAC of any of these to vibrate your brain:
Deftones - My Own Summer (Shove It)
Bring Me The Horizon - King Slayer
Filter - Hey Man, Nice Shot
Bicep - Burial
Katy B - Katy on a Mission
Kelis - Milkshake
Zoë Keating - Escape Artist
Wink - Higher State of Consciousness
Billie Eilish - Bad Guy
Pendulum - Slam
Slipknot - Duality
Machine Head - Down to None
The Prodigy - Omen
Tinie Tempeh - Pass Out
Nonpoint - In the Air Tonight
Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers
William Orbit - Barber's Adagio for Strings
Therapy? - A Moment of Clarity
Massive Attack - Butterfly Caught
Nine Inch Nails - The Great Destroyer
Soil - Unreal
So. Why the long list of tracks? They stretch the sounds of your speakers. Some are seriously bassy with high band, some are midrange with high and low drops. Some, you need the right earphones to hear all of the instruments.
Give them a whirl, let me know what you think. It's a bit of an eclectic mix.
I think Static X's Machine is perfect for this for how heavy it is. Especially that transition from the intro to the second track on the album.
If you're looking for something more bass heavy, then perhaps something like Alon Mor will likely be a good candidate due to how intricate the sound design is.
If you want to find the details in a heavily textured sound the entire Kannon album by Sunn 0))) would be a solid test. Lots of dynamic changes across frequency ranges, and at least if you've listened to it once on a decent/good setup it seems comparatively flat on the wrong gear. Granted "Good" for me is 7506s plugged into my PC, but I think this album is dense enough to be a challenge, or at least an interesting listen and test.
I love this question. Ive thought about how people are likely missing the minute details in good music, or cant fully appreciate a piece just bc their headphones/speakers can't translate them properly.
Like car speakers are so trash sometimes it just ruins the song.
Steely Dan's Aja and Donald Fagen's The Nightfly were considered hi-fi test albums back in the day, though that was in the vinyl heyday - I looked around to confirm and apparently the CD master was kinda trash to start.
Either way I'm generally recommending listening to Steely Dan. :^)
my standard "test track" is the first ~45 seconds of Prison Sex by Tool (I use a local FLAC copy rather than YouTube, of course)
obviously the whole song is great, but packed into that intro you've got the relatively quiet (but acoustically detailed) rumbling noises (not sure how else to describe them) at the beginning, and then the guitar, drums, and vocals all come in one-by-one.
I always liked the studio version of Franz Ferdinand's Lucid Dreams for when it breaks down after the halfway point.
I usually go through a Jon Hopkins album like Singularity or Immunity to test my new speakers or dac. It is very well mastered and has multiple layers.
FLAC/ALAC format is enough for most use case. If I really want to nitpick and push it to the limit (testing monitors frequency response and precision), I might use TR24.
Off topic but while I respect this, a gentle reminder not to do this with speakers if you have neighbors. I'm currently dealing with this issue with my neighbors, and it makes my life hell and further screws my quality of life. I think not everyone puts thought into it, so wanted to put this out there..
Good luck in your quest, I hope you find the enjoyment you are looking for.